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On Thursday, November 8, Committee for a Better New Orleans (CBNO) will host its annual Diana Lewis Citizen Participation Awards. CBNO is now seeking nominations of individuals and organizations for this award. The nomination form provides a little more info on qualifications, but we are thinking in broad definitions of civic engagement.

Nominations are due to Keith Twitchell by August 31. Nominations may be submitted by email to kgctwitchell@cbno.org; by fax to (504) 940-2208; or by mail to CBNO, 4902 Canal Street, Suite 300, New Orleans, LA 70119. Please give some thought to an individual and/or organization that has been innovative and inspirational in helping to give voice to our community, and let us know about him/her/them!

***Please note that the NOPD Hearing has been rescheduled for Friday, July 13 at 1pm***

The City Planning Commission, in accordance with Sections 3-117, 5-402, and 6-104 of the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, will hold public hearings to consider Capital Budget requests by the departments and agencies of the City for the 2013-2017 program years. The hearings will be held in the City Planning Commission’s conference room, located at 1340 Poydras Street, Suite 900, on the following dates:

Neighborhoods Partnership Network (NPN) has put together survey for residents to evaluate how the City is addressing major result area now and to provide input on where the City should direct its spending. NPN will use this information to put together a report to the City to let them know what is and is not working well, and what priorities should receive more funding. Please take 5 minutes to complete this survey. The survey is available on this website, or you can download a word version that you can complete and email to nolacpp@gmail.com. Please complete this survey by June 30. thanks.

On the evening of Wednesday, June 13, the City Planning Commission (CPC) hosted a community input meeting on its Neighborhood Participation Program (NPP) at First Grace Methodist Church. The meeting started with a presentation by CPC of its NPP. City Planning went over the types of applications that it reviews including Zoning Changes, Conditional Use Permits, Variances, Master Plan Amendments, and others. Next the Planning Commission staff discussed the comments it received at its December NPP input meeting and major themes of previous NPP efforts (including CBNO’s CPP).

Finally, City Planning staff went over the two major recommendations its Neighborhood Participation Plan. The first is improvements to public notices and information sharing which includes an increase public mailing notices (300 feet), signs posted on the property and in the neighborhood, emails to individuals and neighborhood associations, and website posting of the application materials. The second improvement would require developers to meet with area residents and neighborhood associations, get public comments, and then submit a report addressing public comments prior to submitting an application to the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission then opened up the meeting to questions and comments. The vast majority of the comments were very positive to what CPC was doing, but most of comments were that the plan did not far enough or were concerns about how certain elements would work. About 4 or 5 people said that District Councils are missing from this plan and need to be included to shift power from the Mayor to the community, to provide equity, promote information sharing, and get neighborhoods working together (as described in the NOLA CPP Model). There was a comment or two opposing the District Council concept.

A couple of people commented that they are concerned that the developers will host the community meetings, transcribe the community input, and provide a report to City Planning without any third-party verification. Another couple of people said that the 300 foot notification radius is not enough, especially with large projects. One person said that the NPP institutionalizes a flawed process that gives too much power to neighborhoods, without any standards for outreach and inclusion (as described in the CPP). One person disagreed.

Some of the other individual comments included that the City needs to fund the implementation of the NPP, concerns that the notification improvements are too focused on technology and will miss people without internet access, and how is the City going to get input on Capital Budget, and to encourage people to be proactive (i.e. suggest project) instead of reactive in this process.

You can get more information about City Planning’s NPP and view the plan from the NPP page on CPC’s website. Until July 10, you can provide your comments to CPC by emailing them at CPCinfo@nola.gov (put NPP in the Subject), calling 658-7033, faxing 658-7032, or mailing them to 1340 Poydras Street, Suite 900, New Orleans, LA 70112. The Planning Commission will revise this draft and then submit it to the Planning Commission for a July 24 vote. The NPP will then go to City Council for final review.

At the June 5 NORD Commission meeting, the Commission approved the proposed Neighborhood Participation Plan (NPP) structure. NORD’s proposed NPP plan is only two pages long. The Neighborhood Engagement Office (NEO), who produced the plan, wanted to get the NORD Commission’s approval of structure before fleshing out all of the details of the plan. So stayed tune to the NORD Commission and the Bylaw Committee for more information about the detail of the NORDC NPP.

On Wednesday, June 13 from 6-8pm, the City Planning Commission (CPC) is hosting a meeting to get input in its proposed Neighborhood Participation Program (NPP). This plan marks a significant step for for resident participation. CPC is improving its notification requirements and will require developers to meet with neighborhoods prior to submitting their plans. These are two core elements of the New Orleans Citizen Participation Program. Here is information on tomorrow’s meeting…

City Planning Neighborhood Participation Plan Meeting

Wednesday, June 13, 6-8pm

First Grace United Methodist Church

3401 Canal Street (at Jefferson Davis)

On Thursday, June 28, City Council will vote on the Master Plan Amendments. Text Amendment #19 would be a significant step back for resident engagement in New Orleans as it significantly weakens the Community Participation Chapter of the Mast Plan. This Amendment would remove any reference to District Councils, an essential component of Citizen Participation Programs nationwide. District Councils already exist across New Orleans, and eliminating them from the Master Plan would undermined these organizations that cover about 68% of the land area of New Orleans. Please let City Council know how you feel about Master Plan Text Amendment #19.